we had the video -- >> we have pictures of you two. there are plenty. i know you have them in your office. >> she's very intelligence, lovely and happy she was just named sexiest woman alive. >> i know. here's hoping for you next ar. >> see if i can do that. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com next, the three minute tape reportedly from jerry sandusky and played on the penn state radio station tonight. this is breaking and we're working to confirm, but blockbuster. especially on the eve of sentencing. also making news tonight, obama taking a dive. big one. a new poll. it's out tonight. is it a sign of things to come? and also an investigation into that attack that killed and american ambassador in libya. why on earth was a request for

extra security in that country denied in the first place? going to take you "outfront." good evening, everyone, i'm ashley banfield in for erin burnett. and "outfront," the obama slide. a brand new poll of likely voters showing mitt romney out ahead and leading the president 49-45%. and look at this. since last month, the president is down 6 percentage points in that same poll. n now, it is just one poll, but take a closer look at the numbers and there may be some pretty red flags out there for the incumbent. voters say romney did a better job wednesday night. 66-20% and that has helped change some voters views of governor romney. he's now polled even with obama

among voters who see him as a quote strong leader. just last month, romney was trailing in that category, trailing, not just by a little. by 13 points, in fact. another contributing factor to obama's slide, women. this might be a surprise, but women are now evenly divided in their support of the two candidates. take a look at your screen. just last month, obama led romney by 18 points among women, so that is big. and keep in mind obama won this voting block by 13 points in 2008, so it's getting even bigger. another contributing factor to romney's big gains, voters say they think he's the candidate who may have the answers to move this country forward. and they think so by 47-40. the voters say romney is the candidate with what they say are new ideas. but just as the republicans complained of f the pollsters and their methods when they were trailing in the polls, the obama campaign is pushing back, too.

noting that more republicans were surveyed this time around tipping the scales perhaps in their favor. they're pointing to the party identification numbers on the survey. which show that more republicans than districts were polled compared to the same survey last month. but we did check this out, folks. we spoke tonight with the director of survey research and he toll us this. let me read directly so i don't get it wrong. stuff is important. we use the same methods, he said, every time we do an election poll. we have a standard method for determining likely voters and we're transparent about our methods. we get what we get. that's what i tell my kids. you get what you get. don't get upset. like cnn's own polling, pew does not know the i.d. the jump can be perhaps attributed to another bright spot for romney. his backers are now really, really backing him.

not just a little excited. they're a lot. 67% of romney voters now strongly support their candidate. and that, my friends, is an 11-point gain for mitt romney since last month alone. so, what's in a number, you say? joining us now, gloria borger, cnn analyst, as well as hogan, who served as national communications director for rick santorum's campaign and cornell belcher. gloria, let me start with you. it sounded like sour grapes a few weeks ago and it's sounding like similar sour grapes when the obama campaign doesn't like the numbers, but this ain't the first time we've been at this rodeo. >> if you look at different polls, the waiting as it's called, is different in different snapshots and what we can say about this is that it is snapshot in time. i mean, i look at the numbers where the gender gap is even and i'm scratching my head about

that because that number seems very high to me for romney to be tied with president obama on gender because generally, democrats do better with women than republicans. so, you know, you have to look at these numbers. say president obama did not have a good night in that debate. that what everything mitt romney could have wanted to get out of that debate, he got out of this debate and if he has gotten his potential supporters more enthusiastic about going out to the polls and that's what this reflects, that's very good for mitt romney. >> there is a difference in the wording. he's leading over, romney's leading overall in this survey among the likely voters. gallup also out today though with a poll among registered voters and that's different. that has a poll where we see obama leading by five points, so walk me through it. is there such a big difference, when i get that phone call, i'm probably hearing my kid

screaming in the background, so i won't hear the difference. what is the difference? >> i love that we're getting the -- on polling now. a couple of things. each polling sort of public polling has their own art and science to likely voting and it is pretty much an art as it is a science a. lot of people had the art wrong going into the late primaries. that's why you saw early polls in the primaries being way off because you're hilikely voter didn't look like a electorate turned out. we had 11% of the general electorate in '08, so the screen was completely off. typically, you're going to undersample minorities and all these polls. that said, a big difference between a registered voter and likely voter, it's someone who says they're likely to vote high on their propensity up front on the phone call say they're going to vote and or they have some past performance in their background where they voted in

one of the two or two of the three general elections. there's an art to this. on this point, i don't play the polling game back and forth, but a seven-point swing in party identification i think goes a long way to explain this. i know this is a story that the media wants to drive, but at the same time, you have a political out with a poll that has a president ahead and gallup with the president ahead. ro reuters with the president ahead. but it's not about the polls frankly. >> 60 million plus people watched that debate and even the democrats next day, james carville saying that mitt romney brought a chain saw. that's a strong effect and those jobs numbers may not have mitigated that two days later. hogan, hold on one second. while it looks great and the numbers look great, they still have some problems. they've got some deficits they need to overcome. i want to go over a couple other numbers. it's all about the honesty and the truthfulness and then the consistency. let's start with the honest and

truthful aspect. there you have obama leading romney 44-39 when it comes to just how honest and truthful you think these candidates are. then when it comes to consistency, which the obama campaign has been hammering away on what they perceive as flip-flops, 47-37. that is what some people, hogan, my dear friend, former intern, which i always like to disclose, is a trust deficit. is it? >> well, so much of american politics is based on do i know you, do i trust you and do i like you. those are some damaging numbers for governor romney for sure. but look, the fact of the matter is he crushed president obama in that debate and these numbers reflecting what a lot of people saw and that was a center rowtype that had been lined out about romney that he was some cold, heartless business man. he turned that on its ear. conversely, one of the stereotypes out for president

obama is he's a great guy, just in over his head. that debate kind of under gurded that stereotype. governor romney, clearly the winner here. the only thing that's worrisome is that 20% of the people said barack obama won that debate. i don't know who that 20% is. that's the sample i'd be most concerned about because everybody i've talked to all said romney won that debate. >> i heard a few people on the street saying they're die hard supporters. i get you. i could go on and on, but we've got breaking news, so i have to say thank you to my guests. thank you for being here. here's the breaking news i was talking about. gje jerry sandusky, he speaks. and he doesn't just speak to mself in his prison cell, he recorded it and released it for all of us to hear and by my watch, he's just hours away from a very serious sentencing. we're going to have that statement and you're going to hear it, next.

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breaking news for you right now. jerry sandusky has been speaking out loud from his jail cell. his attorney is confirming that the voice on the tape is that of jerry sandusky. we're still processing this tape. penn state radio, the college radio station, released an audio statement from the former penn state assistant coach in which the coach proclaims that he is innocent. you will remember that mr. sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sex abuse. i want to play for you part of sandusky's statement. have a listen. >> over and over, i asked why. why didn't we have a fair opportunity to prepare for trial? why have so many people suffered as a result of false allegations. they can take away my life, make me out as a monster, treat me as a monster, but they can't take

away my heart. in my heart, i know i did not do these alleged disgusting acts. >> this statement comes just one day before he is set to hear his sentence and joining me now is cnn's legal contributor. paul, when we got this, we were going to have a different conversation. we did not know this was coming and i dare say there's still more of it to come. right away, the first thing that jerry sandusky says, he's blaming the system. he's blaming the time he did not have for trial. there is a judge who has to weigh tomorrow how many years, up to 422, is this a message the judge is not going to like? >> i think it's another horrible mistake. remember, his attorneys were criticized at the beginning of this case for putting him on national television with bob costas where he basically confessed to improper activities with children and now, he's not

on tv, he's on a college radio station from jail tell iing a story in which he ga blaims the victims, the judge for not giving him enough time to prepare for trial and makes more bizarre statements about how he can be a candle for the world. it's just a ridiculous statement. >> as we do this breaking news, we've had phone call into cnn from one of the attorneys for one of the victims in this case, tom klein, can you hear me? if you can hear me, you're the attorney for victim number five, am i correct? >> yes, i am. right here. >> you must be surprised by this. we were extraordinarily surprised by the release of this audio recording in which the system is blamed and he goes on to blame the victims. i believe at one point, he calls one of the victims a monster for getting the ball rolling. can i get your reaction?

>> well, the statement is preposterous. indeed, he were believe mr. sandusky, then we have the grand conspiracy, which his lawyers attempted to play out in the court which involved ten young men, a janitor, mr. mcqueary, the press, the lawyers and everyone else who's involved. i mean, this just didn't happen that way. >> so, tom, stand by if you would. i want to play another piece of the tape that speaks directly to the claim that jerry sandusky makes about at least one of the victims and their complicity, he says, in what he thinks are alleged climbs. clearly now, he is a convicted child molester. listen to this next part of the tape from his prison cell. >> the young man who is dramatic, a veteran accuser and always sought attention started everything. he was joined by a well orchestrated effort of the media, investigators, the

system, penn state, psychologists, civil attorneys and other accusers. they won. >> mr. klein, you see the accusation there. he's suggesting it is one of these victims that is the perpetrator of what he calls the ball rolling and starting all of this. did you ever at any point work in tsome collusion with the attorneys for the other accusers, who are victims. did you work in collusion with them to foment testimony? to align your story so that when you went into court, everyone had the same story for jerry sandusky? >> i can tell you categoringly not the fact of the matter is there was no collusion whatsoever. my client came forward only after there was a knock on the door by the police which led him to a grand jury room. he never had spoken to anyone. >> did yr client -- did he take a lot of convincing to get to a phase in his life where he

would be willing to go in front of strangers in a courtroom on the record and tell these terrible tragedies and lay them out bare for everyone to hear this all their filth? >> my client was brought to grand jury under subpoena. he testified when he was asked questions. under oath. there was no collusion, conspira conspiracy, nothing of the sorts. he came to the courthouse to tell what happened to him when he was requested to do so and subpoenaed to do so. >> and in case, lest anyone know what that means to be brought before a grand jury under subpoena, it means you are being told you must come. you are not necessarily coming willingly. does your client know about these comments? >> i sent a text of it to him by e-mail just a few minutes ago. after this broke.

i have yet to hear back from him. he is prepared to come to court tomorrow and amitts to come to court to tell the judge the great harm that mr. sandusky did to him in his victim impact statement, he intends to be in court and by definition, tell mr. sandusky how bad he hurt him. my client knows the truth and he knows what happened here. he ione of ten victims upon which the evidence convicted mr. sandusky of 45 different counts and he is now facing what appears to be life in jail. >> i have another -- >> he's lashing out here tonight. >> i think it sounds pretty clear that this convicted child molester is lashing out at everybody. i want to play another piece of this tape. if you can stand by. this is a piece of this statement that jerry sandusky

reported in his jail cell that directly pertains to the potential of appealing the case that he lost. let's listen. >> we will continue to fight. we didn't lose to proven facts, evidence, accurate locations and times. anything can be said. we lost a speculation and stories that were influenced by people who wanted to convict me. we must fight unfairness, inconsistency and dishonesty. >> well, our system certainly allows for appeals when there is some kind of problem in procedure during the trial. i don't know what grounds his appeal will be op. i have not heard from mr. am doe la. trust me, we've tried many times to get comment from you about this. you eluded to your client preparing to give a victim's impact statement tomorrow. he's aware, i'm assuming, that sandusky has been preparing remarks for court as well, correct?

>> well, that was known publicly and widely recorded, so yes. we were aware of that fact. >> is he going to stay in the courtroom for this? >> well, my client intended to be in the courtroom, present his victim impact statement and i'm quite sure stay until sentencing. he is -- to see mr. sandusky have his day in court and have his sentence applied to him. >> mr. klein, at the same time, sandusky says the motivation for many if not all of the ten victims in this case, was money. and that there would be civil action that would roll out right after trial. where does your client stand in that accusation? >> my client is here tomorrow for one purpose only and that is to come before the court to have the judge hear the impact mr.

sandusky has had on life and to close this chapter. >> the university or any other body that he might be able to file action against. >> the claims against penn state are separate from the criminal process that mr. sandusky involved in here tomorrow. it's a totally separate matter. >> let me bring in paul about this notion of appeal. i haven't looked through trial record completely. there is usually something you can find, it's not always fate that you're going to get an appeal. from your recollection of this extraordinary case, is there something on which mr. sandusky might be able to hinlg? >> in criminal cases, you always have the right to appeal. it's a question of whether the appeal has merit. he'll be able to appeal. it will go all the way to the

top court in the state probably, but yeah, he's got some arguments to make. there are three. the first has to do with the fact that the prosecutor made reference to the fact that sandusky in the interview with costas, didn't really present his case. he said he had an opportunity to present his side and he didn't present it adequately. so the defense is saying well, they're commenting on the fact he didn't testify at trial. that's a big no-no. i don't think they went on that because they voluntarily submitted him to this interview, so now, they're going to come in front of a jury and say well, it was wrong for the prosecutor to refer to an interview that we orchestrated? i don't think they're going to win on that. the second point is the case went so fast. >> it did. it was weeks, not months. >> he was only arrested last november of 2011. the case was over in less than nine months with huge numbers of alleged victims, so it went to trial -- >> the trial itself was very speedy.

>> in looking at the law, you have a right to a speedy trial. i never heard of a right to a slow trial, have you? that's what they're saying. they pushed us into it and we couldn't prepare. that's the second biggest thing. >> any good litigator will tell his client, don't go in there tomorrow, don't apologize necessarily, i can't have you on the record admitting to this if you're going to appeal. you will close your appeal on the record at that very moment, so many of these people don't come in and apologize. >> no, they don't. >> that said, the judge sentences and a big part of sentencing the way i see it is whether someone is contrite, whether they seek forgiveness, mercy. so you have a huge decision to make when you're going into that courtroom on the eve of sente e sentencing. >> and weave already seen what the decision is. either he decided to do this or his attorneys decided to do this. they said let's make a tape and send it to the college radio

station in which we attack the judge for making the case move too quickly. in which we attack the victims for conspireing with each other. >> this just angers a judge. you can assert your rights in a courtroom. you can give your statement in a courtroom. you can say i still leave i'm innocent of these charges, sir, but to do this in advance, the judge is going to know full well what's happened. mr. klein, i'd like to know if your client is going to bring up this tape. do we still have mr. klein on the phone? i think we've lost him. >> if sandusky wanted to give a press interview and tell his side of the story after sentencing, believe me, everybody's looking to talk to him. so why wouldn't you wait. do this in a dignified way. hope for the lowest possible sentence and then take your case to the public. instead, we get a college radio station broadcasting the first news of his sentencing statement. i've never seen anything like this. >> once again, just to wrap up what's transpired, jerry sandusky recording a statement

from his jail cell on the eve of a sentence that could be as high as 422 years tomorrow, blaming the the system. blaming the trial judge. blaming the victims. at one point, calling a victim a aming everody bumself, asseininnocee and before we even knew about this tape, we knew he would not apologize, not ask for mercy, not suggest he was anything but innocent of the dozens and dozens of charges against him. 45 convictions in this case. that's the news, folks and it continues tomorrow. we're going to wrap up this story because we have other big news from today as well. mitt romney on the offense. very aggressive with regard to the conflict in syria. so does he want the yit to get involved? does he want us to be sending weapons or someone else on behalf of us? we're going to get in to what exactly he meant when he said weapons in syria. also, a state department memo shows a request for

essential security. an essential security team, please keep themdeny ied. why? why? try to find out in a moment.

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our third story "outfront" tonight, mitt romney laying out a very aggressive new position on syria saying that as president, if he were to be, he would want to see the that is syrian rebels, the ones america identify as friendly to us, would be armed. >> in syria, i'll work with our partners to organize and identify those members of the opposition who share our values and then assure they have the arms they need to defeat assad's tanks and helicopters and fighter jets. >> that takes some talking. the former nato sprum allied commander is supporting the campaign and to the right is kristen silverberg, am bass tor to the union. before today, mitt romney had not specifically called for arming the rebels and this country is really not too keen on it and nor are they too

opposed, it seems. if you look at it, 48% favor doing so. 47% oppose doing so, but this is new from mitt romney. but how are we supposed to know who the good guys are, who the bad guys are and is he suggesting for a moment that america send the guns? >> no, what governor romney outline ed today was a plan to work with the region, turkey, the saudis, to make sure they have a weapons they need. the two things we hear, first from the opposition groups themselves, that they don't have the weapons they need to overthrow assad and second from our partners in the region, that they feel constrained by u.s. policy from doing things to support the rebels. and that's really a disaster for us. one because we're allowing a slaughter to continue. 30,000 civilians have been killed and second because we're handing a victory to iran.

the iranian are very actively engaged in sierra because they see the strategic -- >> in the '80s and '90s, we thought -- that didn't turn out well. >> we have to be thoughtful abt, work with our europeanal highs. but the u.s. has experience on these issues. >> surely you're not saying push turning over the decision making as to who gets what kind of ordnance to theeuropeans. >>, now, but we need to work with the europe bs. we're stitting on thelines. >> general clark -- >> this is something that's going to be a major -- >> she makes a very good point. whatever we're doing right now, which is sitting on the sidelines somewhat, as many critics of president obama said, it's not working and people are dying. in record numbers every day. does president obama need to step it up a notch? >> well, i think that mitt romney at the start of the

excerpt there, has a huge caveat on this, which is that we would work to identify and organize the leaders of the syrian opposition and make sure they share our values. well, that's precisely what the administration is doing. so, with the headline grabbing phrase here arm the syrian rebels, that's not what this, our administration is doing right now and it's actually not what mitt romney said he would do in the speech. what he said he would do is exactly what this administration is doing. we're working with the people in the region, trying to identify and organize the syrian political opposition. >> we're working, general clark, but we're providing communications and some n non leathal assistance. so what we're providing has -- by assad and his henchmen.

what else can we do? >> the work we're doing is not just providing communications. that's the start of this. what we're actually doing is trying to help build leadership because somebody has to be politically in charge of the people who are using the weapons. otherwise, you may as well just pull the ship up to the port, unload the weapons and hand them out on the street. these groups and the free syrian army, they don't all work together and cooperate and we don't know under whose authority they're operating. some are al-qaeda. we do know that. certainly don't want to be arming al-qaeda. we know some of our allies are putting weapons in there. they're constrained by the fundamental forces that are con training us. there is no political organization to assad. so as bad as this is right now, we could make it a whole lot worse by dumping a lot of weapons in and then having a collapse and then having al-qaeda there taking over

another base that we'll have to fight. so as painful as it is, there's a right way to do this if we want to help those who seek freedom and that is work the political opposition first before you start shoveling your weapons in. >> general clark and ambassador, you both made great points. and we have to move on our to fourth story "outfront," mitt romney speaking at length about the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi that killed ambassador stevens and three others and what he would do about the situation there. >> in libya, i'll support the libyan people's efforts to forge a lasting government that represents all of them. and i'll vigorously pursue the terrorists who attacked our consulate in benghazi and killed our fellow americans. >> eli lake has been out on the libya story from the beginning with what the u.s. knew. he joins us once again with

increasing information on this. so, i want you to clear up something. you've been reporting today about the militia and some leaders of that militia in benghazi, who were allied with our mission there, but then said we're done with you because you don't like who we support for our new leadership. was that accurate? were they threatening to pull that work away and leave us less protected? >> that's based on the notes of september 11, 2012 cable that was approved by ambassador chris stevens on sort of the benghazi situation overall. it was one of the most interesting bullet points in the three page cable back to washington and i think it shows that in libya right now, there is an effort to try to build serious national security institutions, but those are very early, the early stages of that right now and that means that the libyan government and also the united states government for

the security of its own diplomatic missions has to rely on the libyan militias that helped oust gadhafi. >> let's move over to tripoli. that's not where the attack happened, but it's an embassy. i'm surprised to see that the u.s. and staff in tripoli had requested from our government, an extension for special option security support team to stay in the country past a deadline. there was a departure date in august. and they got stamped denial. >> well, i'm still trying to report out that the answer to that question. but there is one line i've heard one i put this to a state department official. when you set up a new mission in a country like libya, you start off and you're always using officials for security and other

routine functions. over time, you rely more and more on local nationals to do a lot of that work and that's what they say was going on in libya. >> all right, i appreciate your time tonight. i appreciate the time you've spent on trying to dig out these details. as arcane as they are, devil's in the details. thank you. we're going to have to latest for you from the turkish syrian border. man, this just won't stop. the artillery fire from both sides. could it get worse? ♪

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and we're back with tonight's outer circle where we reach out to our sources around the world and we begin in venezuela, where chavez pledged to continue forward with his socialist agenda. paula newton is on the ground f following the story and i asked her how the people there were reacting to his re-election. >> this was a decisive victory for chavez, but even at 10%, the opposition is still saying this was a good showing. why? he had the disposal of the entire government. all that money from oil profits at his disposal.

he threw everything at the election campaign, giving out free homes, cars, cell phones, refrigerator refrigerators, doing anything he can and what is that going to do? going to leave venezuela in a bind. venezuelans here are sitting on the largest proven oil reserves in the world and yet a default could happen. a devaluation of the currency is likely at this point. what does that mean? any kind of destabilization of this country considering the united states is almost 10% of its gas from here, it could lead to some shocks at the gas station. we'll have to continue to watch it. >> thank you. it will be exciting at the u.n. you know that. i want to take you now to the syrian, turkish border. this has been a mess lately. artillery fire has been flying over the border and it started concerns that the cross border dispute could be a big, large regional battle.

ivan watson's on the ground there. >> reporter: turkish and syrian artillery have now exchanged fire across the border for a sixth straight day. the turks are making it very clear that any time any gunfire or cannons or mortars fire into turkish territory from syria, they will respond immediately in kind. as far as the military alliance goes, last week, they held emergency talks declaring support for turkey when it first came under fire and also condemning syria for shooting into turkish territory, but up until now, no one has invoked article five of the charter. that considers attacks on one member of the alliance to be an attack on all of them and requires the entire alliance to come to the defense of the attacked party. >> all right. thank you very much.

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time now to check in with anderson cooper with a look ahead at what's coming up on "ac

360." >> breaking news on the program tonight. first polls released this afternoon show just how big of a punch the obama campaign took. the swing state of michigan is very much in play. mitt romney is in the lead in a national talk it over. also, a second breaking news story i know you have been covering. the jailhouse recording from convicted child rapist and ex-penn football state coach jerry sandusky. you will hear how he denied ever participating in what he terms alleged disgusting acts. all angles on that story ahead. jason carroll is live from the courthouse, where sandusky could be sentenced to life in jail tomorrow. you'll also hear from michael bonny, the lawyer for victim number one and sandusky's defense attorney. those stories and tonight's "ridiculist." a lot ahead at the top of the hour. >> such a bombshell. just shocking. to listen to his voice and how clear and convicted he is in

what he says. look forward to it. thank you. want to go to our fifth story "outfront" tonight. love free or die. not live free or die. this thursday's national coming-out day, a day that encourages lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual people to come out to their loved ones. that is what bishop gene robinson did more than 25 years ago. he's since become the first openly gay bishop in the church and is taking his message on the road in a new documentary film that follows his personal journey to gain acceptance in the church. "outfront" tonight, bishop robinson joins me. good to see you again. we meet again. >> i know. i'm so glad to see you again. >> what a treat. i want to talk -- the time we met before, we talked about your new book called "god believes in love." now i want to talk to you about this election and mitt romney and president obama and where they stand and what their stands mean as we move into a very

important vote. give me your lay of the land quickly, if you would. >> sure. both candidates are saying that there's a real choice in this election, and i would have to agree with them. we have this time around not tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum but a real choice. we have one party whose president has affirmed marriage equality and has stood behind us in our fight to make liberty and justice for all really mean all, and we have the republican party, which in fact wants to take us backwards. i don't think the american people and certainly religious people want to do that. >> i should mention to our viewers, you're endorsing president obama. i want to ask you now, we want to flip from the election to the supreme court. there's a very important season ahead. there are two critical cases that the supreme court justices could take up. that's the challenge to the defense of marriage act and also

the challenge to proposition 8 in california. without doing a huge legal lesson, safe to say that proposition 8, if it is adjudiated by the high court, could have a sweeping effect across the nation. clearly you would support that. but do you expect the supreme court is going to take up proposition 8 given the controversy in the election year? >> my guess is that the supreme court will be a little more cautious and if they take up this case or even let the ninth circuit court of appeals case stand, that it will apply more narrowly than to be this kind of sweeping across the nation change. i think the defense of marriage act, so-called, is much more likely to be taken up and much more likely to be successful in the sense that we have this situation in which i'm married to my husband, mark, legally in the state of new hampshire because we have marriage equality, and yet the federal

government is prohibited from recognizing my marriage, my legal marriage to my partner, and therefore, the various responsibilities and benefits and so on that accrue to married couples across this country cannot apply to me and my husband. >> just to go ahead on that, the defense of marriage challenge coming out of massachusetts is exactly that. a woman who wanted to be i believe it was tax-free bequeathment of her assets, this would only apply to states that recognize same sex marriage. i'm flat out of time because we had breaking news with jerry sandusky. i could talk to you until the cows come home. thanks so much for talking to us again. good luck with the documentary. >> wonderful. see you next time. >> i hope so. i would like to be in one of your sermons one day. gene robinson joining us live from california.

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holiday spending is a great way to gauge the economy, and if the latest predictions are any indication, things are getting better. the next holiday's halloween and it will be the biggest one in history. i kid you not. according to the national retail

federation, 170 million americans are expected to spend a total of, you sitting down, $8 billion on halloween this year. that's a billion dollars more than last year. and the numbers are actually up right across the board, too. we are set to spend more on costumes, decorations and candy. there is, however, one category that is up way more than all the others. i cannot believe i'm about to tell you this. it does bring me to tonight's number, 370 million. that's how much americans are expected to spend on halloween costumes for their pets. you heard me right. over the past few years, more and more americans have been dressing up their pets for halloween. they have been taking them trick or treating and to parades and this year, costumes are expected -- people are expected to spend almost $70 million for these things, for their